5.3 PTR Patch Notes are live!

The 5.3 PTR patch notes are already here and a lot of interesting changes are coming.

Some of the highlights include:

4 New Scenarios, and a brand new heroic difficulty for Scenarios

A new Battleground - Gold Rush located in Valley of the Four Winds.

Loot Specialization - you can now pick which spec you receive loot for (helpful for gearing offsets!)

Bonus Rolls now have a proection from bad luck streaks, each roll gets a progressively higher chance at loot.

Blizzard

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 5.3

General

Please note: During the 5.3 PTR, not all the content listed may not be available for testing or may only be available during a limited testing window. Keep an eye on our PTR Discussion forum for details.New Battleground: Gold Rush

In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!

New Arena: Shado-Pan

Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!

New Scenario: Battle on the High Seas

Help your faction fend off enemy forces in the midst of a battle for naval supremacy on the High Seas.

New Scenario: Blood in the Snow

An agent of Zandalar has infiltrated Dun Morogh and rallied the Frostmane trolls. At Varian’s request, Moira will lead her personal guard against them once the king’s champions have stopped the magical storm protecting Shimmer Ridge.

New Scenario: Dark Heart of Pandaria

Goblin engineers have been excavating in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to find a mysterious artifact, but all they've found is trouble; you have been personally called upon by the Warchief to aid them in their hour of need.

New Scenario: The Secrets of Emberdeep

Infiltrate the Emberdeep Caverns and assist the Gob Squad in investigating a recent disappearance in Durotar.

Heroic Scenarios

A heroic difficulty for Scenarios have been added and are designed to provide challenging content for small groups of well-seasoned adventurers. Completing a Heroic Scenario awards Valor points, and a chance to obtain Raid Finder quality items.

Quests

Creatures

Spiritfire Beam no longer increases in damage with each jump, deals a flat 200,000 damage(up from 150,000 damage), and jumps to 99 targets (up from 20 targets).

Pet Battles

Dueling for Pet Battles are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Loot Specialization

Players can now choose to receive loot for a specialization that's different from their current class role. This feature could be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, and Pandarian quest rewards.

Raids

Bonus Roll

Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to bonus rolls. Each bonus roll that does not provide loot has a progressively better chance to award loot to the player.

For the Fathom-Lord Karathress encounter, Cataclysmic Bolt now deals 10% of the target's maximum health plus 500 damage, down from 50% of target's maximum health, the stun effect is now a Stun mechanic, and can target any player instead of only characters with mana.

PvP

A blog with additional information and explanation for the reasoning behind PvP changes will be available very soon.

All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.

Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.

Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493.

Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.

Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.

Battlegrounds

More information coming soon.

Professions

Herbalists of low skill can now pick herbs in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield an herbalist will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.

Miners of low skill can now mine mineral deposits in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield a miner will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.

Items

The Voidbinders are back in capital cities and shrines.

PvE Item Upgrades

Items upgradable by Valor now require 250 Valor to upgrade per 4 item levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Valor.

Items upgradable by Justice now require 750 Justice to upgrade per 8 item levels, for a total of 750 Justice for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Justice.

PvP Item Upgrades

Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.

Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.

No other PvP items are upgradable.

Unclaimed Black Market Containers are now available on the Black Market Auction House. What's inside? It's a mystery! When opened, the container has a chance to contain any item that can be available on the BMAH.

Courageous Primal Diamond had its clearcasting effect renamed to “Lucidity” to differentiate it from other spells with that name.

Comments

Comment by leaponover

on 2013-03-25T00:06:11-05:00

As far as being VP capped though, I never am able to cap without huge effort and lots of time spent.

Now this is just not true. 50 vp for the first scenario of the day, 80 for the first heroic of the day, right there you have 130 VP for investing about 90 minutes per day. Do this for 7 days and you get 910 VP, after which all you'd have to do is either 2 more heroics and 1 scenario, or 1 LFR wing and 1 scenario and presto. VP capped. You can cap a lot faster if you farm the rare mobs on the new island of thunder (which have shared loot regardless of who pulled first) and earn 15 VP per kill, which considering they respawn every 40 minutes, means you can easily gain over 80 VP per hour if you get them all.

So yeah, "Huge effort and time spent" my ass.

Guess your idea of huge time spent is different than mine TURKEY! You are not including queue time (like most absent minded fools do) and still 1 hour and half is a lot to spend every day on A GAME! So maybe open your mind and stop thinking the world is just like you and you'll have a clearer understanding of the people around you.

Comment by leaponover

on 2013-03-25T00:08:15-05:00

Herbalism and Mining catch-up is about the dumbest idea Blizzard have ever come up with.

Gathering profs don't need catch-up. Crafting ones do!

Cheers.

A catch up for materials IS a catch up for crafting....faster material gathering means faster crafting. Unless you want to be able to do Alchemy, Inscription, Engineering and Blacksmithing without any materials. I suppose you want to play the game without a computer as well....

Comment by Interest

on 2013-03-25T00:26:32-05:00

A heroic difficulty for Scenarios have been added and are designed to provide challenging content for small groups of well-seasoned adventurers. Completing a Heroic Scenario awards Valor points, and a chance to obtain Raid Finder quality items.

Whoa what. >_>

Bonus Rolls now have a proection from bad luck streaks, each roll gets a progressively higher chance at loot.

Snap!

Comment by deathbyte

on 2013-03-25T00:47:59-05:00

Herbalism and Mining catch-up is about the dumbest idea Blizzard have ever come up with.

Gathering profs don't need catch-up. Crafting ones do!

Cheers.

Think they are doing this 'solve' problems of all the CRZ complaints for having to comete for nodes.

(I am in no way saying it will help though)

Comment by Sensorium

on 2013-03-25T05:42:40-05:00

Really hoping this is an early April Fool's Joke. Resilience removed from game? Arenas scaling? If Blizzard doesn't want us to PVP then just get rid of it, don't make it completely and utterly useless.

You know, nowhere did it say that they were removing resil from the game. Even if they just take it off some of the gear, you still got the passive 65% AND resil gems, which I may add, you should be stacking whenever possible anyway. More than likely, you'll probably break even,or have even a little less resil than what had before, at least, thats what i'm gathering from a first glance.

Comment by Wombat62

on 2013-03-25T05:50:57-05:00

As far as being VP capped though, I never am able to cap without huge effort and lots of time spent.

Now this is just not true. 50 vp for the first scenario of the day, 80 for the first heroic of the day, right there you have 130 VP for investing about 90 minutes per day. Do this for 7 days and you get 910 VP, after which all you'd have to do is either 2 more heroics and 1 scenario, or 1 LFR wing and 1 scenario and presto. VP capped. You can cap a lot faster if you farm the rare mobs on the new island of thunder (which have shared loot regardless of who pulled first) and earn 15 VP per kill, which considering they respawn every 40 minutes, means you can easily gain over 80 VP per hour if you get them all.

So yeah, "Huge effort and time spent" my ass.

Guess your idea of huge time spent is different than mine TURKEY! You are not including queue time (like most absent minded fools do) and still 1 hour and half is a lot to spend every day on A GAME! So maybe open your mind and stop thinking the world is just like you and you'll have a clearer understanding of the people around you.

heroic queues -15 min at the most plus 10 to 15 to complete , scenario queue -less than 1 min , 10 to 20 to complete so to do 1 per day of each is 50 min max ,much less if you are tank or heals, ( mine seem to range between 35 and 45 min to complete both ).

During queue time for heroics I do my farm and then go to isle of thunder , usually get a daily or two completed before queue pops , so queue time not wasted .

Its all about time management , especially if your play time is limited. When I log in I know exactly what I am going to do on that toon , pre planning works wonders .

Also I leave my toons sitting where I am going to start with them when I next log in so that I don't waste time traveling when I log on .

Comment by rinkworks

on 2013-03-25T09:43:52-05:00

What does "stun mechanic" mean here? How is that different from just being stunned?

Comment by Entropyutd

on 2013-03-25T10:04:30-05:00

Players can now choose to receive loot for a specialization that's different from their current class role. This feature could be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, and Pandarian quest rewards.

Very nice; looking forward to that.

Long long overdue.

Comment by Rainemard

on 2013-03-25T11:32:50-05:00

Guess your idea of huge time spent is different than mine TURKEY! You are not including queue time (like most absent minded fools do) and still 1 hour and half is a lot to spend every day on A GAME! So maybe open your mind and stop thinking the world is just like you and you'll have a clearer understanding of the people around you.

It's not just a game, it's an MMO. There are many levels of playability, each with their own levels of commitment. Rankkor was just trying to help by describing some of the many ways to gain Valor (all without even mentioning daily quests, the weekly Champions of the Thunder King, challenge modes, or normal raids). No one is forcing you to cap Valor, that's a goal you set for yourself.

Don't get mad at others just because your goal requires more effort than you're willing to put forth.

Comment by Entropyutd

on 2013-03-25T12:38:04-05:00

Guess your idea of huge time spent is different than mine TURKEY! You are not including queue time (like most absent minded fools do) and still 1 hour and half is a lot to spend every day on A GAME! So maybe open your mind and stop thinking the world is just like you and you'll have a clearer understanding of the people around you.

Don't get mad at others just because your goal requires more effort than your willing to put forth.

This.90 mins is nothing in this game, I've seen a lot of players waste 90 mins talking crap in Trade and complaining about lack of things to do.

If you want instant gratification, again an MMO is not the place to go for that.

Its all about time management , especially if your play time is limited. When I log in I know exactly what I am going to do on that toon , pre planning works wonders .

Also I leave my toons sitting where I am going to start with them when I next log in so that I don't waste time traveling when I log on .

And this.Again if time is a factor it's about time you learn to manage that time rather than going off on other players when they call you out on a point.If I have limited play time I do whatever I deem most important for that character on that particular day. If I need to farm mats for professions or food for raids, I do that.

Set your own goals, but don't set goals and then whine because your lack of time/planning prevents you from achieving them.

Comment by leaponover

on 2013-03-25T20:21:06-05:00

Funny how all these comments about play time are making it seem like I'm making up a quicker way to get VP's when IT ALREADY EXISTED IN CATA! This is not a plea for a new way, just going back to an old way. Don't make it seem like i'm making this up out of thin air and complaining about it. It's a change from an older way and I think the older way was better. That's all there is to it.

Comment by Azrile

on 2013-03-25T22:54:05-05:00

As far as being VP capped though, I never am able to cap without huge effort and lots of time spent.

Now this is just not true. 50 vp for the first scenario of the day, 80 for the first heroic of the day, right there you have 130 VP for investing about 90 minutes per day. Do this for 7 days and you get 910 VP, after which all you'd have to do is either 2 more heroics and 1 scenario, or 1 LFR wing and 1 scenario and presto. VP capped. You can cap a lot faster if you farm the rare mobs on the new island of thunder (which have shared loot regardless of who pulled first) and earn 15 VP per kill, which considering they respawn every 40 minutes, means you can easily gain over 80 VP per hour if you get them all.

So yeah, "Huge effort and time spent" my ass.

Guess your idea of huge time spent is different than mine TURKEY! You are not including queue time (like most absent minded fools do) and still 1 hour and half is a lot to spend every day on A GAME! So maybe open your mind and stop thinking the world is just like you and you'll have a clearer understanding of the people around you.

Are you joking? Scenario.. no que 15mins to run.. 50 VP Heroic dungeon as dps 15min que, 15mins to run it.... At worst, a dps has 45 minutes to earn 130ish VP. The longer scenarios and dungeons now reward bonus VP.

If you are efficent, you are either killing rares or doing dailies in the 15 min heroic que But the reality is, even heroic queues are not getting up to 15 mins that often. As a tank, it is not easy to get satchels any more (which I get when dps gets up to 15 mins).

But that said, there has to be a minimum amount of effort to get VP capped. If they make it so ´you´ can do it in 30 mins per day.. then people who play an hour or two will have nothing to do.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2013-03-26T06:05:27-05:00

Funny how all these comments about play time are making it seem like I'm making up a quicker way to get VP's when IT ALREADY EXISTED IN CATA! This is not a plea for a new way, just going back to an old way. Don't make it seem like i'm making this up out of thin air and complaining about it. It's a change from an older way and I think the older way was better. That's all there is to it.

Yeah? Do you remember doing the dungeons in Cata? How about when the Troll instances came out? The only time getting VP was 'easy' when the HoT came out, and even then you could get the hell ones from End Time that would slow the grind down to a halt.

But really; Scenarios go faster then instances, it's really that simple, since the scenarios are meant to be fast. The longest one is A Little Patience, while the others are over in about 10 mins or so, which is much faster then the 10-15 minute wait and 15-30 minute dungeon run.

Comment by chopsticks10

on 2013-03-26T12:44:25-05:00

no alchemy trinket... sad face.

Comment by Dilbo

on 2013-03-28T16:17:49-05:00

My first assumption was that the PvP changes were an early april fool's ruse but now I'm not so sure...

"All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%."

The whole reason for creating PvP gear was to enable more competitive PvP by managing the damage that players would deal to each other. Giving everyone a blanket PvP damage reduction marginalizes PvP gear and making it this high begs the question of why they even bother increasing the level cap if they want players dealing the same kind of damage they did at 85 when they are 90.

"Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear."

This makes pvp gear absolutely worthless and this means that outside of instanced pvp anyone in pve gear is going to dominate.

"Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493.""Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512."

They have effectively removed the incentive to gear up your character and this was a large part of playing and RPG type game. You may have a vocal minority that loves to whine about gear discrepancies making them easy kills in arena or BGs but they are not prevented from gearing up. What type of "progression" are they going to offer players who enjoy PvP and do not want to waste time running inane dungeons and raids over and over again?

"Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496."

Sorry but I like the diversity you get by having varying levels of gear in bgs and arena so long as the teams have a reasonably even distribution of players who are both well-geared, moderately geared and poorly geared. People often say "pvp is about skill not gear". Not so. Being able to beat someone in better gear than you shows skill. Being able to beat someone geared equally to you could fall under the category of "luck" and/or an advantage your particular class has over the other...point is that it's not a binary factor that's either one way or the other.

Rather than taking this "fair share" approach they could just make more items available more easily, ESPECIALLY weapons, rather than forcing people to wait weeks before being able to get one, and then offering nothing new for several patch cycles. There are already plenty of games where all players have a "level playing field". The disparities that gearing options introduce make a game like WoW more interesting...removing this element is harbinger of its demise.